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User blog:Category Theory/DLC Acronyms
We need to refer to items from specific non-free DLC products in various places on the web site; in many places (especially tables), it would be best if the references were as short as possible. I propose that we use acronyms (more precisely, initialisms) to reference DLCs, with a template to make sure that we're using them consistently, and link them automatically to the appropriate DLC page. Template I propose using this template for this. Given the correct abbreviation, it will format it with slightly smaller lettering (similar to using small caps, as would be typgraphically common), change it to the wiki's "DLC" color, and make it a link to the corresponding DLC page. This should let users unfamiliar with the abbreviations, or even DLC easily learn what the abbreviation means by clicking on it. Further, it will show an error message given an unknown or non-standard DLC abbreviation to ensure that editors are consistent in the abbrevations' use. Here's a list of all the DLCs and the result of the abbreviation macro for each. I'm open to changing the specific abbreviations, if someone has a better idea for them. I'm also open to tweaking the formatting. Examples of Use in Context Here are some examples of where it would be used. Weapon Builds Note that here we do not add the DLC tag to the Long Barrel, even thought that's from , because the weapon itself is also from that same DLC, so anybody with the weapon will automatically have access to that modification. Weapon Statistics Tables In tables, we could continue the idea of putting the DLC tag after the name (in the same column as the name) as above, or we might create a new column for the source: The advantage of the latter is that we might extend this to adding a "Base" tag for items known to be in the base game; this would provide us an obvious indication (by the column being blank) that the source has not been definitively deteremined, and the correct parameter needs to be added. Other Approaches Looking at how the DLC tag is being used above, and how we could simply append it after the name in the table rather than giving it a separate column, it might make sense to, instead of invoking the DLC template after every reference to a mod, creating a mod reference template that would both link to the mod and add the DLC tag after it as well. (We could add an optional parameter to suppress the DLC tag if necessary, though I don't see any need for that off-hand.) So, instead of having to write Trigonom Sight You would instead write If we could find some non-obtrusive way of distinguishing in the output between the uses of Pro Grip and , that would help with the update problem mentioned below. There are some disadvantages to this approach. Not only do you lose the various forms of auto-completion and completion help you get when inserting links to pages, but also only those who have been told in advance or seen uses of this in the code would know how to do it. (In particular, users of the visual editors are not likely to find this technique obvious.) Is there some way we could make this easier, such as being able to provide an insert tool for weapon mod references? Problems One major issue with DLC tags is that weapon modifications are widely referenced throughout the wiki, and chasing down all the references is a tough job. How do we tell, when a weapon name is presented without a DLC tag, whether it's part of the base game or part of DLC but simply hasn't been updated? Category:Blog posts